Bank employees worried with rise in COVID deaths

While banking is an essential service, the staff are not treated as frontline workers

Deaths due to COVID have sent ripples of fear among bank employees in the State. The staff of the nationalised and private banks are in a tizzy with positive cases and deaths being added to the list every day. Forty-five- year-old Anand Kishore, a bank employee, is inconsolable as his close pal in the bank succumbed to COVID a couple of days ago. “There was not a single day at the chest (branches of selected banks authorised by the RBI to stock rupee notes and coins) that Suresh and I missed sharing our lunch boxes. It’s still unbelievable that Suresh is no more. I don't like to open my lunch pack,” he says. It is one of the 175-plus death cases in the State. The spike in positive cases and deaths, with banking being deemed an essential service, has raised concerns in the banking fraternity. More than 4,500 active cases is a worrying factor for the staff.